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ANOTHER LETTER ABOUT JOHNNIE AND FREE SPEECH

Angela Breck, Editor
Maryland Independent

Dear Ms. Breck:

Thank you to the Maryland Independent for covering a very important story regarding political free speech rights. It is most distressing when government exceeds its authority and breaches someone’s free speech rights, especially when the speech involved in political. As was reported in the story, Johnnie DeGiorgi, who is a candidate for county commissioner was stopped from handing out political material on property owned by the county. Other candidates had handed out material there in the past, and at least one politician had a supporter handing out political materials at the same time as Johnnie. That person was not challenged.  Mr. DeGiorgi was also told that if he did not like the rules, he should leave.  All of this while other political material was being handed out by someone representing an elected official, without any restrictions being placed on that person’s actions. . Indeed, many of the elected officials have distributed political materials at these events in the past, and there is nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is when the government chooses whose literature can be distributed, and whose cannot.

I wanted to point out a few things that were left out of the story however.  Despite claims to the contrary, neither my client, Johnnie DeGiorgi, nor myself ever accused any individual commissioner of being responsible for the breach. The commissioners should learn, however, to take responsibility for what happens on their watch. We have asked all of the commissioners to denounce this act, and to take reasonable measures to ensure that the county government does not infringe any citizen’s free speech rights again. So far, the silence has been deafening.  Maybe this time they will do the right thing.

Thanks again to you and to Jay Friess for your even-handed approach to this important issue.

Kurt W. Wolfgang,
Attorney for Johnnie DeGiorgi

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